Happy Giggle Friends

I remember that first day… I was out of the house and went to the convenience store. There was always an advertisement on the window and there was this one poster everywhere. I took a good look at it, not really understanding it but it had fun, colorful, goofy characters and a box below it. I decided I’d look at it after getting snacks, I came out of the store and had a sudden feeling of dread reaching for the box but I didn’t mind it. I picked up the box and brought it home to look at, I dumped its contents on the ground and it was a bunch of VHS tapes. Episode 1, 2, 3, 4… there were a lot of them; I found episode 1 and put it into the TV.

There was a rainbow, bushes, and those characters again. Music started playing and they were all dancing and jumping around; I stared at all the bright and loud colors and after a while, they stopped and introduced themselves: Dizzy! The yellow monkey! Violet! The purple hippo! Ozzie! The blue elephant! Hopkins! The white rabbit! Leap! The green frog! And last but not least… The screen went blank with no characters and was just silent. It cut back to all the characters and Dizzy jumped up

“Let’s go to the amusement park!” The first tape fell out. I didn’t realize it at the time but it was already the evening and I needed to go to bed.

I heard the door open, I laid as still as I could. I could hear his heavy footsteps walking to the side of my bed and I was sweating, he was staring at me for… I don’t even know how long before he left.

The next day I woke up thankfully after my parents were gone, so I went to the kitchen. On the fridge, there was a note that my mom left: “Good morning honey, you’re probably hungry so I left something for you in the microwave -Love, Mom ❤ ️” I ate and got right back to the next episode. I didn’t know but I watched 3 hours worth of episodes and that feeling of dread I had before was getting stronger.

But in one of the episodes, the characters seemed to talk about this “missing” character a lot more, but now they suddenly were all in this room and stared at the camera, still smiling…

“5 days left”. The rest of the episode was like the rest; all fun and games but I noticed that Ozzie; a character I felt I connected with really well, was acting… well terrified.

The next episode had the title “Letter from Afar” where the episode mostly focused on Hopkins and all the messages he had gotten back from the “missing” character but the words on the letters were weird and Ozzie pointed out that isn’t how he talks… “4 days left”.

Now this next episode was called “Leap’s Final Leap.” It of course focused on Leap and it talked about his fear of heights. The episode was unnaturally creepy because all of them were uncannily happy about him falling. But at the very end of the episode, something pushes him off the cliff as he screams in terror… “3 days left.”

The next episode starts with Ozzie on a bed in what seems to be a barn house, shaking with fear. If you listen closely at the start, you can hear giggles. The camera zooms into his face and you see him mouthing “Help me.” The camera then pans to a closet, and all the music and giggles stop, a giggle; never heard before is heard and the closet doors open to the sound of heavy breathing and quiet sobbing.

It was late, my dad would be getting home any minute so I walked to my bedroom and figured that I’d finish all the episodes tomorrow. In my bed… I don’t know why. The nightmares were more vivid than ever, since even touching that box. Again, he started and the walls bent and warped in my vision as tears filled my eyes. Giggling, from the closet in the corner, the doors opened slowly. Heavy breathing and quiet sobbing.

As soon as I wake up the thought fills my head: “2 days left.” Cautiously, I put in the next VHS. “Violet’s….” The next word was cut off and not even the theme plays. It just starts with everyone in her garden but… Ozzie wasn’t there. Very quietly, a groan in the tone of “his” voice is heard. The episode plays out normally from there but at the end of the episode, what seems to be Ozzie is upside down hanging from his feet with his eyes completely black and he was smiling. “2 days left.”

I feel nausea, fear, sadness, and worry. I started to shake picking up the tape, I put it in and it was just static. “Dizzy’s funhouse!”. Dizzy always was a little creepy to me, always yelling and just doing a lot. The episode starts with Dizzy all by herself jumping around but on the sides of the screen, you can see eyes that match all the characters. She then just stops and looks at the camera, smiling. It cuts to all of them on a bounce house, jumping around when Leap stops hopping around and yells in excitement “Tomorrow! Tomorrow is the day!”

I wasn’t really feeling anything, just tired. They go through “Dizzy’s Funhouse” while constantly mentioning that tomorrow is the day. In the end, it seemed like all the other episodes but just stopped in the middle of the outro.

I heard my parents fighting again, now longer than ever. It eventually ended with my mom running out slamming the door behind her while my dad cursed her out. He stomped towards the kitchen as I hid behind the couch, I heard as he grabbed a bottle from one of the cabinets. “I won’t let this happen again…” I braced myself for what he would do, hiding behind the couch; I held my breath and listened to his footsteps as he walked to his room, I was safe… For now.

I quietly turned on the last episode: “Giggle Havoc” It started with Ozzie hiding from him, and it sometimes cut to what he was hiding from “Bruce” the “missing friend”. I noticed that he had the same name as my dad, but why was Ozzie hiding from him? I was sweating at this point and a deep giggle could be heard from “Bruce”, a silent cry came out of Ozzie as he stepped closer. Bruce’s eyes looked directly at where Ozzie was hiding and then the screen went black as… unpleasant noises were heard mixed with the giggling of Bruce.

The rest of the episode was horrid… I didn’t expect any of it. It didn’t make sense to me how it could end up like this, such a fun-looking “kids” show hiding something so sinister.

I heard the door open and I froze, his heavy breathing and his footsteps made me feel like I would collapse and he stepped closer without hesitation. He held up the shattered bottle as I pushed myself back to the wall, I was stuck. I closed my eyes and let out tears, it felt like cuts on every inch of my body. I laid in the puddle of blood as I was shaking, he dragged me to my bedroom closet. That show messed up my brain, maybe because I didn’t really do anything else but I couldn’t tell if that was Bruce or “Bruce”. I heard a deep Giggle coming from the TV as he walked out of the room.

I’m 26 now as of writing this and I was 14 at the time. I’ve decided never to watch anything from a VHS tape. My dad has been arrested and I haven’t really seen his face since that day. I’m doing good now and have never gone back to that town as a whole. I wanted to see if anybody else had seen that show so I went on a couple of subreddits, but I got a very interesting response on r/lostmedia.

I thought this would be the best place to share this, does anybody remember a show called “Happy Giggle Friends”? I first discovered the show when I was 14, living in Pennsylvania. I first saw a poster on a window with a box underneath that I took home. The show was pretty innocent at first but it became horrifying. The characters were “Dizzy the monkey”, “Violet the hippo”, “Leap the frog”, “Hopkins the rabbit”, and “Ozzie the elephant” and there was a missing character named “Bruce” . Hopefully, I wasn’t just crazy.

u/forest_ranger: “I actually do remember watching a show like that, I think it was a gift from my aunt, but I don’t remember any character named “Bruce”. I remember a character named “Jack”

u/Burnt_Pebble: “Yeah me too, I kind of remember a show like that, it was a little creepy but that’s just because it’s an old show. I remember my friend got me a gift that had different shows they didn’t watch anymore.”

u/MoldyGrilled_chicken: YES! I watched that show and I still remember the first season, it was…well interesting. The whole time I just felt sorry for all the characters.

OP u/Chris_goose: Alr thanks, I really thought I was crazy, but I do wonder why “Bruce” was only in the version I watched.

I felt satisfied with the answers. I checked the time and heard a giggle coming from my bedroom closet.